HOW TO THINK ABOUT MEDICATIONS IN THE TREATMENT OF BPD Kenneth R Silk, MD Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry University of Michigan Health System Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2700 ksilk@umich.edu
DISCLOSURES l I receive royalties from the American Psychiatric Press, Cambridge University Press, Up-to-Date l I am one of 3 Co-editors-in chief of Personality and Mental Health, a journal owned by Wiley-Blackwell l I will talk about the off-label use of psychiatric medication 2
BPD PSYCHOPHARM: IMMEDIATE PROBLEMS l No medications carry a specific indication for use in treatment of personality disorders l Thus all medications must be used off label though not uncommon (in U.S.) to use medications off-label l Medications for BPD are less effective for symptom or symptom complex than when used in other disorders (primarily Axis I) l BPD patients seem exquisitely sensitive to side effects 3
NEVERTHELESS WE TREAT PERSONALITY DISORDERS PHARMACOLOGICALLY l l CLPS* 81 % (of patients w/ personality disorders) Zanarini et al**: l 78% BPD on meds >75% over 6 years l 68% OPD on meds > 75% over 6 years l l 71% BPD still on meds at 6 years 54% OPD still on meds at 6 years l l BPD 51%, OPD 22% on 2 or more meds at 6 years BPD 37%, OPD 8% on 3 or more meds at 6 years * Bender at al: Am J Psychiatry, 2001; 158: 295-302 ** Zanarini et al, J Clin Psychiatry, 2004; 65:26-36. 4
EMOTION DYSREGULATION American Psychiatric Association. Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder. Am J Psychiatry 2001, 158(Suppl)1-52 4/7/15 5 Pharm.NEABPD.Apr2015
IMPULSE AGGRESSION American Psychiatric Association. Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder. Am J Psychiatry 2001, 158(Suppl)1-52 4/7/15 6 Pharm.NEABPD.Apr2015
COGNITIVE PERCEPTUAL American Psychiatric Association. Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder. Am J Psychiatry 2001, 158(Suppl)1-52 7
APA GUIDELINE RECOMMENDATION (2001) l Pharmacotherapy often has an important adjunctive role, especially for diminution of targeted symptoms such as affective instability, impulsivity, psychotic-like symptoms, and selfdestructive behavior. However, pharmacotherapy is unlikely to have substantial effects on some interpersonal problems and some other features of the disorder..clinical experience indicates that many patients will benefit most from a combination of psychotherapy and psychopharmacology. l -APA Guidelines, 2001, p. 10 8
COMMON STUDIES - BPD AD, MS, AP, vs PLACEBO, (NO OMEGA-3) l Bogenschutz, Nurnbg, 2004 Dug WF ING NOSE COCHL TOR NICE VITA l Coccaro, Kavoussi, 1997 Dug WF ING NOSE TOR VITA l Cowdry, Gardner 1998 WF ING TOR NICE VITA l De la Fuente, 1994 Dug WF ING NOSE COCH COCHL NICE l Frankenburg, Zanarini 2002 Dug WF ING COCHL TOR NICE VITA l Goldberg 1986 Dug WF ING NOSE COCH COCHL NICE l Hollander 2001 Dug WF ING NOSE COCH COCHL TOR NICE VITA l Hollander 2003/2005 Dug WF ING NOSE TOR NICE VITA l Leone 1982 Dug COCH COCHL l Loew 2006 Dug WF ING TOR NICE l Montgomery 1983 Dug WF ING COCH COCHL l Nickel 2004 Dug WF ING NOSE COCHL TOR NICE VITA l Nickel 2005 Dug WF ING NOSE COCHL TOR NICE VITA l Nickel 2006 Dug WF ING NOSE COCHL TOR NICE VITA l Pascual 2008 COCHL TOR NICE VITA l Rinne 2002 Dug WF ING NOSE COCHL TOR NICE VITA 4/7/15 9 Pharm.NEABPD.Apr2015
l Salzman 1995 Dug WF ING NOSE COCH COCHL TOR NICE VITA l Simpson 2004 Dug WF ING NOSE COCHL TOR VITA l Soler 2005 Dug WF ING NOSE COCHL TOR VITA l Soloff 1993 Dug WF ING NOSE COCH COCHL TOR NICE VITA l Soloff 1989 Dug WF ING NOSE COCH COCHL TOR NICE VITA l Tritt 2005 Dug WF ING NOSE COCHL TOR NICE VITA l Zanarini, Frankenburg 2001 Dug WF ING NOSE COCH COCHL TOR NICE l 23 COMMON STUDIES l Ingenhoven 21 <1998 9 l Cochrane-Lieb -25 = 2 Omega-3s 1998-2005 11 l Cochrane Binks 10 >2005 3 l Mercer 18 l Nose 22 l WFSBP - 21 l Duggan 22 l Saunders 20 l Vita 17 10
DIMENSIONS OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY l Affective Instability: abandonment, affective instability, capacity for pleasure, depression, emptiness, euphoria/ mania, identify disturbance, interpersonal sensitivity, irritability, rejection sensitivity, suicidality l Anxiety inhibition: general anxiety, anxiety intropunitiveness, obsessive-compulsive score, phobic anxiety, somatization l Cognitive perceptual: paranoid ideation, perceptual distortion, psychoticism-schizotypy l Impulsivity/Aggression: aggression, anger, hostility, impulsiveness Siever & Davis (1991). "A psychobiological perspective on the personality disorders." Am J Psychiatry 148(12): 1647-58 11
CONVERGENT (OR CONTRADICTORY) EVIDENCE Afft/Instb Aggrs/Impul CogPer Anx/In Glob Binks (Coch) (AD) (AD) AP NA (AP) Lieb (Coch) MS (AP) MS (AP) AP NA Nosѐ AD/MS AP NA NA (AP) WFSBP AD** AP/MS AP AD Duggan NA MS AP NA Mercer AP/MS MS --- ---- Ingenhoven MS MS/AP AP MS MS Vita MS (AD) MS (AP) AP SUMMARY MS (AD**) MS/AP AP (AD/MS) AP Silk & Fuerino III: Psychopharmacology of personality disorders. In Widiger, T. (Ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Personality Disorder. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 2012, pp. 713-724. 12
WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US? l Probably consider a revision l Greater role for MS and AP with diminished role for AD (Abraham & Calabrese, 2008) l The role of psychopharmacology is still adjunctive to psychotherapy l Need to consider the algorithm, whatever its current decision tree, as iterative l Many contradictions remain Abraham and Calabrese: Evidenced-based pharmacologic treatment of borderline personality disorder: a shift from SSRIs to anticonvulsants and atypical antipsychotics? J Affect Disord J 2008 ;111:21-30 13
Angry/Labile MS/AP Depressed SSRI, AP Augment* AP w/ MS Augment* AC w/ AP Depression--???? * Caution should be used when augmenting to minimize polypharmacy EMOTION DYSREGULATION 4/7/15 14 Pharm.NEABPD.Apr2015
MS or AP (low dose) AP-w/ AD qualities MS-Topiramate? Augment * w/ other (AD or MS) * Caution should be used when augmenting to minimize polypharmacy IMPULSE AGGRESSION 4/7/15 15 Pharm.NEABPD.Apr2015
COGNITIVE PERCEPTUAL 16
OUR REVIEW (Saunders & Silk, 2009) l Out of 20 studies, only 3 had more than 100 subjects and most (13) had less than 50 l 73 % of the subjects are women l 16 different instruments for affective instability l 6 for Anxiety-Inhibition l 7 for Cognitive-Perceptual disturbances l 16 for Impulse, Impulsive-Aggression Saunders & Silk: Personality trait dimensions and the pharmacologic treatment of borderline personality disorder. J Clin Psychopharm 2009, 29: 461-267. 17
THEN DO MEDICATIONS WORK HERE? l The best we can say is that they remain nonspecific in their response l There is a high placebo response rate in clinical trials l Some times we can t appreciate that the medications are working until we experience the patient in the absence of the medication l No long-term studies l No continuation studies 18
POLYPHARMACY DANGER l Potential for polypharmacy exists l Especially when the psychopharmacologist is over-enthusiastic l Believes that medications can and will cure if only the right combination can be found The less than completely responsive patient meets increasing forms of sadism disguised as treatment T.F. Main, 1957 l What polypharmacy can guarantee are drug-drug interactions and weight gain 19
TRANSFERENCE- COUNTERTRANSFERENCE REACTIONS l These people are in real pain l Their ability to express that pain verbally and behaviorally can at times be profound l These people can have serious problems with impulsivity, self-destructive behavior, and suicidality l This is America and more is always better l We live in an age where augmentation of one medication with another is de rigueur l Often we are trying to rid the patient of depression or at least to reduce it even more 20
DECIDING ON A MEDICATION l What s happening in patient s life at that moment l Is there a symptom or symptom complex reminiscent of an Axis I disorder? l Is there evidence for positive medication effect for that symptom/symptom complex in Axis II? l e.g. depression, panic l Try to distinguish true Axis I episode from emotion dysregulation l Try to distinguish a true major depressive episode from chronic dysphoria, loneliness, emptiness l Always consider co-morbid substance misuse 21
DECIDING ON A MEDICATION If there were two medications, one for depression and one for moods bouncing around, and if you could only take one, which one would you choose? l No evidence that two medications work better than one for any symptom l No evidence that two medications within the same class of medications work better than one 22
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